Executive summary

The threat from quantum computing is no longer hypothetical. Encrypted data is already being harvested and stored by adversaries in anticipation of the future collapse of classical public-key cryptography, exposing governments, industries, and critical infrastructure to harvest-now, decrypt-later attacks.

Qubitrium endorses the NIS Cooperation Group’s PQC Roadmap and a rapid, coordinated migration from classical public-key cryptography, including RSA and elliptic-curve–based mechanisms, across protocols, infrastructures, and products. The European Commission’s 11 Apr 2024 Recommendation sets milestones: First Steps & national plans by 31 Dec 2026, high-risk use cases by 31 Dec 2030, and broad completion by 2035 driven by harvest-now, decrypt-later risk and the multi-year lead time to upgrade PKIs and embedded systems. Compliance pressures and global alignment reinforce this timeline.

Qubitrium’s Position: PQC is the immediate baseline for internet-scale interoperability and compliance, while hybrid approaches that combine PQC with Quantum Key Distribution (QKD) should be the preferred defense in depth for high-assurance or sovereignty-sensitive links. Act now:

• Cryptographic inventory,

• Pilots of standardized PQC and explicitly hybrid modes,

• Post-quantum signatures for software/firmware updates,

• Analyze potential use cases for QKD where higher levels of security or assurance are required

The urgency of the transition is already evident across today’s terrestrial telecom systems and applications, where long-lived data and complex infrastructures make retrofitting costly and slow. Space systems represent the extreme case of this challenge: once assets are launched, retrofitting cryptographic equipment becomes impractical or impossible. Strategically, this reinforces the need to move beyond simple algorithm swaps toward crypto-agile and adaptable architectures, capable of evolving across multiple PQC algorithms as well as hybrid PQC+QKD constructions, including PQC-secured trusted nodes, hybrid entropy sources, and adaptive optical/RF channels.